Warren Entsch (Leichhardt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Transport and Regional Services. Would the minister update the House on steps the government is taking to provide greater security at Australia’s major airports? What additional funding has been provided through the budget to respond to the recent review of aviation security?

Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Minister for Transport and Regional Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Leichhardt for his question and acknowledge his particular interest in the Cairns airport and indeed the other major airports in Australia. He is as aware as any of the solid effort that this government has been putting in over recent times to improve security at Australian airports and to ensure that Australia’s travelling public have a safe and secure environment. This budget is further demonstration of the government’s commitment to aviation security. As a result of this budget we have now committed $886 million in response to the Wheeler review recommendations. It is a very significant commitment.

There is $355 million to improve community policing at airports and $176 million for additional counter-terrorism first response capabilities at our major airports, and that is on top of the existing expenditure on that counter-terrorism function and our canine capacity at those airports. There is $48 million for new initiatives for cargo security, and a significant amount of that will be for additional mobile X-ray units and explosive-detecting dog teams to examine the cargo that is placed on our aircraft. There will also be more money for explosive trace detection equipment and for a variety of trials to test some of the promising new emerging technologies in relation to security and explosive detection techniques.

These are very significant initiatives and bring to $1.1 billion this government’s investment in aviation security initiatives since September 11 2001. We take aviation security seriously. We are committed to a safer and more secure environment for all Australians who travel in the skies. It is perhaps evidence of the opposition’s interest in this issue that they have not bothered to comment at all on the importance of these matters in their response to this environment. They are full of criticism, but in reality they do nothing.